. . . .One day while lounging on the beach, my beloved husband said, "This is what I want to do everyday. Is it wrong to want to live a life of leisure?" My daughter replied, "Dad, you do live the life of easier." And so we do! Here is a bit from our life of easier.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

I decided to combine History Odyssey with Story of the World. I knew that Story of the World would be a good introduction to Ancient History for E-R and I-E. I also remembered the fun element from the first time I studied Ancient History with N and A-M. History Odyssey is a solid program that combines history with basic research and research writing skills, but fun is not an adjective I would include with any description of it. I think satisfying works well to describe it. It is satisfying to complete a map while learning the locations of cities and countries one has just read about. It is satisfying to look back over summeries of important figures one has written. It is satisfying to explain to dad the outline one has written. I want to teach the joy of satistfaction, but I also want to teach the excitement of learning how others lived, thought,and believed through exciting stories and hands-on activities.

So, this year I decided to combine the two programs. E sticks with History Odyssey. He is old enough to remember the stories from SOTW from the last time we studied ancient history. A-M and I-E read SOTW together. I pick a few activities to go with each part of History Odyssey. Voila, best of both worlds!

Anyway, now to the part you cared about! I've matched up the chapters of SOTW with History Odyssey. I know that some ladies on TWTM forums have mentioned that they perfer to do the opposite---Follow SOTW and add in History Odyssey. To be honest, that does make more sense to me, but I didn't think about doing it that way before we started, so here we are. Perhaps next year, I will try it that way. So if you wish to do it that way, this list will still work--just complete the SOTW chapters in order and match them up to the History Odyssey lessons listed.

Lessons Listed are for History Odyssey and Chapters listed correspond with SOTW

Lesson 2---Chapter 1

Lesson 7---Chapters 3 and 7

Lesson 9---Chapters 2 and 4

Lesson 10---Chapter 12

Lesson 13---Chapter 13 and 14

Lesson 20---Chapter 11

Lesson 22---Chapter 8

Lesson 24---Chapter 17

Lesson 27---Chapter 10

Lesson 29---Chapters 32-33

Lesson 32---Chapter 6

Lesson 33---Chapter 14

Lesson 35---Chapter 38

Lesson 36---Chapter 39

Lesson 37---Chapter 37

Lesson 38---Chapter 15

Lesson 40---Chapter 26

Lesson 43---Chapter 9

Lesson 45---Chapters 31-32

Lesson 48---Chapter 21

Lesson 50---Chapter 19

Lesson 54---Chapter 20

Lesson 56---Chapter 22

Lesson 59---Chapter 23

Lesson 61---Chapter 24

Lesson 66---Chapter 25

Lesson 69---Chapter 27

Lesson 71---Chapter 29

Lesson 74---Chapter 34

Lesson 75---Chapter 35

Lesson 76---Chapter 36

Lesson 80---Chapter 28

Lesson 83---Chapter 41

Lesson 84---Chapter 40

Lesson 85---Chapter 42

The End!

Of course, not all of the chapters matched up perfectly with the lessons. So, if you find something that works better, please let me know.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

A-M: This past week A-M's freshman project was chosen as an example project. What exactly this means--we're not sure! But I have been informed by said freshman that it is good news. She has worked hard on her project and deserves this extra recognition. Her very first report garnered a GPA of 4.2!

N: N continues to work hard on his Japanese class. He is also working on extra labs for his Pyscology class so he can count it as a lab science class. N's report card also pleased us with all As. he also helped put together another great fun night as part of a great leadership team! I exspecially enjoy hearing his voice on the school's call-outs.

At home this week, we had a laid back relaxed kind of week. PJs were the uniform of the day as we adjusted to the cooler fall mornings. We bathed like cats in the sunshine to warm up.

History: This week we learned about the cultures spread throughout Ancient Africa. Littles wrote paragraphs about the changes camels brought to Africa. We also worked on mapwork and timelines. As a treat, we watched a DVD about the first rivertrip from the start of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea. We are reading aloud People of the Ancient World: The Ancient Kushites.

Math: E was feeling under the weather a few days this week and skipped Teaching Textbooks two days. He completed lessons 68-70---topics stock, calculating with a calculator, and checkbooks. He also continued to work on Life of Fred. Currently Fred is working on fixing his mistake of paying WAY too much for a bike. I-E and E-R continued working in the first book of Key to Fractions--I am hoping they can finish it this coming week. In Primary Mathmatics, this week constisted of reviewing estimating and multiplying. We also worked on mental math problems.
My favorite part of math this week was when J started Math in Everyday Life with everyone. They learned about wages, gross pay vs net pay, deductions, exemptions, social security tax, and minimum wage laws. I really enjoyed listening from the kitchen. :)

Soaking in the Sun while Working on Math Smart Game in PJs

Language Arts: We finished chapter 17 and started chapter 18 in Shurley English. This week we focused on irregular verbs and verb tenses. E-R and I-E are really enjoying Island of the Blue Dolphin. We have read it outloud within the past year. E-R told me, "I forgot how good it was." Ethan has added alot to his Hobbit display.

In writing this week, topics were chosen for our research papers. E chose Gorden B. Hinckley, E-R chose Ramesses II, and I-E chose Abraham Lincoln. We hit the library to get some experience with real live encyclopedia and started the process of taking notes on those time trusted index cards. I hope to have these research papers completed by Christmas break.

Art: Lessons 2 and 3 are completed. The project for Lesson 2 explored lines and different ways to create them. Lesson 3 had a practice with contour lines and looking at things as they are instead of how one expects them to look.

This is titled Knives by I-E.

We had a good week and are looking forward to a very short week of school and a long relaxing break with family! Happy Thanksgiving, all!

English---We have worked through Chapters 15 and 16 of Shurley English. New things learned--indirect objects, possesive nouns, and quotation rules. Our research writing unit began with summary paragraphs which we practice during history time. We practiced summarizing the contributions different pharoahs are remembered for. We also worked hands-on with an encyclopedia. In spelling I-E and E-R worked through lesson 38. Some of their words these past two weeks---splattered, admitted, withheld, shouldered, builds, wouldn't, watering, prettiest. E has been working in Sequential 2 at an accelerated pace. We have been doing two lessons a day because it seems so easy for him. Some of his words: scream, disgusted, climax, streaming, surname, nickname, and Christianity. We started Word Roots. Our root for this week was struct. Ethan continues working on his Hobbit bulletin board. He has written poems about elves and goblins. He has also added another setting drawing. E-R and I-E finished reading Trumpet of the Swans. E-R made a character book. I was very impressed with her drawings--she's quite an artist. I-E decided to make a poster about the themes of love and family. Her poster turned out quite lovely! This week they started reading Island of the Blue Dolphin. I challenged E-R and I-E to read 1,000 pages by the end of the year. If they complete the challenge, they earn a date with Dad. They have been working hard to meet the challenge.

Math--E-R and I-E worked on Factors, Multiples, Order of Operations, Negative Numbers, Addition and Subtraction of Whole Numbers in Primary Mathematics. They also reviewed Place Value using Miquon. They also started Key to Fractions Book One last week. Book One reviews Fraction Concepts, so they can really cement those concepts before I introduce Multiplying, Dividing, Addition, and Subtracting of Fraction. In Teaching Textbook, E worked on lessons 57-66 which covered decimals. Today he completed quiz 9. Life of Fred is a new math book we are testing out. I wanted E to complete a review of fractions, but didn't want anything as problem intensive as the Key to books. Life of Fred fits that criteria perfectly. Each lesson is a short sweet bit of Fred's life that just happens to include math. Of course, Fred leds a pretty unusual life--considering he is only 5 1/2 and is currently teaching college classes!

History--We finished up studying Ancient Egypt. I'm kinda sad, because there is so much we didn't have time to study, but alas we must move on. I am excited to move on to Ancient Africa. I remember studying this time and area with A-M and N. I think I enjoyed it so much because I learned so much new myself.

Art--We started art this past week. We are using Discoveries in Art. We completed lesson one which covers the defination of art, the feelings expressed in art, elements of art, and the choices involved in creating art. The best part was the project. J took the littles to the park to draw a night scene of the sky. Then they compared their creations to Starry Night. They had a blast and were all happy with their creations. Of course, I wanted to add all of the enrichment suggestions to the lessons; of course that didn't happen and maybe--just a little---I'm okay with that!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Today is Friday the 13th. Friday the 13th has special meaning for our family. On Friday the 13th two special little girls entered our lives. We had done everything we could to get them to us healthy and whole. They entered the world much bigger than expected and have filled our lives with joy and smiles ever since. They are an example of true friendship and love to all of us.